NBC News anchor Brian Williams has been suspended for six months without pay because of exaggerating stories regarding the potential danger he was in while reporting from disaster-afflicted regions. When it finally came to light remarks he had told were not accurate, some memory experts offered explanations other than deliberate misstatements by Mr. Williams. The possible argument made to justify his comments: the complexity of memory and how memory works.

Mr. Simpson, a lawyer well versed in the dangers of false memories, states “Mr. Williams, the NBC news department, and the nation all may believe Mr. Williams has deliberately lied when in fact Mr. Williams may simply have had confabulated memories. Confabulated memory is the production of fabricated, distorted or misinterpreted memories about oneself or his or her environment, without the conscious intention to deceive. I sincerely hope the possibility of a confabulated memory is carefully considered rather than a rush to condemn a good man.”   Simpson adds “there are techniques to employ to determine whether or not the Brian William’s comments are more likely confabulations or deliberate misstatements.   The pile on by other networks is self-serving and not informative. This entire William’s story can be one where the public is educated about the false memory controversy; a subject which major mental health organizations warned about in the 90’s.”

A mental health malpractice lawyer knows that false memories are a controversial issue and one that becomes a major cause for concern when people’s testimony of terrible crimes is used to secure a conviction in court. It is important to understand the complexities of false memories and the truth behind how memories work to develop a better understanding of why certain types of counseling may be problematic.

False Memories a Complex Subject

The Boston Globe reports on how memories change over time to create a story that makes sense based on your current world. Some experts believe that memories often provide false accounts of events that may have occurred, or provide “at best, semi-accurate records of what we experience.”

Research supports the theory that memory is fallible. Last year, a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience involved 17 participants looking at a computer screen at an object. The object was then moved to a different place in the same background. The participants were then asked to put the object back to where it had originally been, and they always put it closer to where it was in the second picture. This suggests the second picture had repealed the old one in their minds.

If the brain can create incorrect memories just by looking at different pictures, this means there is an even bigger risk that the brain will create false or incorrect memories when faced with explicit suggestions. This is part of what made Repressed Memory Therapy dangerous and is part of what makes theophostic counseling dangerous.

Repressed memory therapy (RMT) is a field of psychotherapy that assumes issues like insomnia, anxiety, bulimia and other related problems are caused by memories of child abuse that have been repressed. Techniques like hypnosis, guided imagery or other trance like states are used to help people “recover” their memories of abuse that their subconscious may have allegedly buried. In the last four decades however, repressed memory therapy was found to have caused many individuals to make false accusations of sexual and or satanic abuse that didn’t occur. RMT is not recommended by mental health professionals because of the risks of inadvertently planting false memories.

Theophostic counseling was developed in the 1990s and is also aimed at helping people to identify underlying causes of ongoing emotional pain and ongoing causes of current sins. The premise is that everyone is emotionally wounded because of lies the memory creates about past experiences and everyone must seek to have hearts and minds healed by Jesus. There are 14 principles of theophostic counseling, including finding renewal for the past to redeem the present.  However, many critics believe this process of dealing with past experiences is just a form of repressed memory therapy by another name.

If counselors use techniques like RMT or theophostic counseling and people falsely remember things like abuse, mental health counselors who participate in these widely-criticized forms of psychotherapy can sometimes be held liable for the consequences.

A psychiatric malpractice attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

In 2013, there was a significant increase in the number of young people who used a firearm to die by suicide. Most of the instances in which a young person died by suicide using a gun involved a family member’s firearm.

A suicide attorney knows that many people who are considering death by suicide will use a firearm when available. This is one reason why it is so important for mental health counselors and professionals to be aware of the signs of suicide and to take action. Family members who are warned that a loved one is considering death by suicide can take extra precautions with any weapons in their home.

More Deaths By Suicide Involve Firearm Use

According to NBC News, the number of teens who died by suicide involving a firearm reached a 12 year high. An estimated 876 young people between the ages of 10 and 19 took their lives using firearms.

This is the third straight year in which the number of young people who chose this method to die by suicide has increased. In approximately 82 percent of situations where a young person died by suicide involving a firearm, the gun belonged to a parent or to another family member.

The increase comes at the same time as a general spike in the suicide rate for teens. Death by suicide is now the second leading cause of teen fatalities, with only motor vehicle accidents causing more fatalities. From 2007 to 2013, the overall rate of suicide among young people between the ages of 10 and 19 increased by as much as 34 percent.

Some advocates of stricter weapons laws argue that guns in the home increase the chances that a child will be shot and killed. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine also asserts that having access to guns increases the risk of death by suicide and Fox News indicated that guns in the home could cause as much as a three-fold increase in the risk of death by suicide.

Access to firearms may result in a high number of deaths by suicide not just because people who are considering suicide may find it easier if a gun is available, but also because guns tend to be a speedy method of suicide as compared to other things like taking pills. There is less opportunity for help to come or for a young person to change his mind when a gun is used in an attempt to die by suicide.

Health care professionals need to carefully monitor young people, and people of all ages, for risks of suicidal tendencies. If a young person seems especially at risk of suicide, it becomes important to discuss options with family about restricting access to weapons as well as about getting appropriate care.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

Transgender teens in Texas throughout the United States are at significantly greater risk of death by suicide. In fact, a 2011 study of 6,450 people published by the National Transgender Discrimination Survey revealed that as many as 41 percent of gender nonconforming individuals tried to die by suicide. A suicide attorney in Texas knows that family support can help bring down the suicide death rates among this specific demographic, but the risk of suicidal ideation and death by suicide still remains higher than the general population.

Transgender individuals may be especially vulnerable as teenagers, a time when their bodies will start changing in ways they do not want it to and a time when they may be forced to cope with cruelty from peers. Parents and caregivers can sometimes help kids through this difficult time period by providing children with the counseling they need to manage their feelings. However, counselors need to be trained, qualified and capable of recognizing when someone is having thoughts of suicide so appropriate action can be taken to prevent a tragedy from occurring.

Counselors Could Help to Save the Lives of Those Considering Death by Suicide

The recent suicide of an Ohio teenager has brought the issue of transgender teen suicide to the forefront, with many mainstream news media publications covering the story and with vocal groups of people actually condemning the parents of the teen who was killed.

The death was announced first by the child’s mother as the death of her “son.” The child was anatomically male but the child believed that this was the inappropriate gender. Before dying by suicide by jumping in front of a large truck, the teen had posted a suicide note that would publish after her death. The note has been reposted hundreds of times in newspapers and across websites. In it, the teen explained feeling depression at the idea of not being able to transition or ever find love. The teen also exhibited frustration at what she perceived to be the lack of support from her parents.

The teen’s mother has given conflicting accounts of what occurred, denying much of what was in the suicide note, according to CNN.  Because there are two sides to every story, it is not clear exactly how much information published in the suicide note was a 100 percent accurate depiction of the relationship between the teen and her parents. As we all know perceptions trump reality. Themes that the note did repeatedly mention, however, involved the teen’s frustration before her suicide about only being taken to religious counselors who were judgmental and not supportive of someone with gender identity issues.

If this is in fact the case, then these counselors may not have done their jobs and may have let their patient down in important ways. Whether a mental health counselor agrees with a person’s lifestyle or not, it is not the job of the counselor to judge, nor fail to properly assess this high risk group for suicide. This is true whether the patient is experiencing a gender identity crisis, depression or has other types of mental health concerns. A qualified counselor will listen and provide appropriate therapy. A qualified counselor should also be able to recognize when someone is depressed to the point of contemplating suicide so that the counselor can get the patient help.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

A charity called Samaritans released an app at the end of October that was designed to help prevent death by suicide. The app included a specially designed algorithm that was intended to identify key words and phrases that might suggest someone was having thoughts of suicide. People who signed up for the app would be notified if someone that they were following was posting troubling phrases on Twitter that could suggest a risk of suicide.

The app has since been pulled from the market because of concerns about privacy and worries that it might make things worse for those who are experiencing mental health issues. While this particular app may not have been the best approach to take to helping to prevent suicide, it does raise questions about how technology could be used to help people who are having a hard time.

Identifying suicidal risk factors can be a difficult thing to do without some basic training. I recommend visiting the QPR Institute online. QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) Gatekeeper Training for Suicide is a brief educational program designed to teach “gatekeepers”–those who are strategically positioned to recognize and refer someone at risk of suicide (e.g., parents, friends, neighbors, teachers, coaches, caseworkers, police officers)–the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to respond by following three steps:

Trained mental health professionals and medical care providers should be in the best position to provide appropriate assistance. Unfortunately, a suicide attorney knows that this does not always work and medical professionals sometimes fail to do their job. “At times they simply don’t know what they don’t know because their professional training failed them” says Skip Simpson. Professional organizations like the American Association of Suicidology are busy trying to fix the poor clinician training in the United States. Another hard charging organization, the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), is trying to get medical schools and graduate programs to focus on properly training their students in suicide prevention. The SPRC is moving mountains in suicide prevention.

QPR training will get folks at suicide risk to the proper resource; SPRC is attempting to make sure those resources know what they are doing and then do it properly. If clinicians fail to apply the proper standard of care, then they face a review by Skip Simpson and his colleagues across the United States.

Technological Tools in the Fight to Prevent Death by Suicide

The Samaritan app analyzed people’s Twitter accounts to find key phrases that could potentially suggest a person was considering death by suicide. Some of the phrases that the app looked for included things like “help me,” “need someone to talk to,” “hate myself,” “depressed,” and “tired of being alone.”

When these phrases were identified, followers of the person who was making the tweets would be alerted via email. Only people who had signed up for the service would get the email alerts. The app also monitored only Tweets that were publicly available and sent them only to individuals who were already following the tweeting person.

There were concerns, however, that stalkers and bullies could potentially sign up for the service. This would give them the opportunity to use the information to increase their abusive behavior at a time when their victims were especially vulnerable. Another possible issue is that the app could result in false positives, causing needless concern and making people less likely to reach out when they are feeling down.

The app has been removed from the market in response to the concerns. However, there are other online tools that are still used to help in the fight against suicide. Good Therapy, for example, has provided a list of the top 10 websites on the Internet that can help people who are having thoughts of suicide or who want to help others who are struggling. Lifeline Chat also makes it possible for people to reach out and talk to someone online if they are depressed or despairing and having thoughts of suicide.

So, while technology might continue to assist in the fight, nothing can replace human contact, genuine concern, and the help of medical professionals trained to deal with victims struggling with thoughts of suicide. Throughout the holidays, we can each do our part to reach out and help those struggling to cope through what for many is the most difficult time of the year.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

Nearly  everyone has heard about the importance of talking about your problems and not keeping feelings bottled up. A new study in Lancet Psychiatry finds that talking to others – specifically, therapists – can actually save lives. People who have attempted suicide can benefit from “talk therapy,” another name for psychotherapy. Repeat suicide attempts and deaths by suicide were about 25 percent lower among a group of Danish people who underwent voluntary short-term psychosocial counseling after a suicide attempt, according to the study.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examined Danish health data from about 65,000 people who attempted suicide between Jan. 1, 1992, and Dec. 31, 2010. They looked at 5,678 people from that group who received sessions of talk therapy at one of Denmark’s eight suicide prevention clinics. Then they compared their outcomes over time with more than 17,000 other people who attempted suicide and who looked similar on other factors but had not gone for treatment afterward. Analyzing the data after a 20-year follow-up, researchers found the people who received talk therapy  were less likely to attempt suicide than people who did not receive the therapy.  Those who received psychotherapy repeated acts of self-harm less frequently and had a lower risk of death by suicide (or any cause) than those in the study who did not receive the therapy.

First-Of-Its-Kind Study Supports Benefits of Psychotherapy in Suicide Prevention

Suicide attorneys understand that it’s no surprise that counseling people with suicidal thoughts will help save lives.  But up until now, there has not been a lot of research to support whether a specific treatment is working. It’s a difficult subject to analyze, according to the study’s authors, because it’s not ethical to conduct a randomized study where some people get suicide prevention therapy while others don’t. In Denmark, the suicide prevention clinics were rolled out slowly and participation in the study was voluntary. Researchers say the large-scale study is the first of its kind to offer evidence that talk therapy can decrease the number of deaths by suicide.

Unfortunately, we know that many licensed mental health professionals in the United States lack proper training to help people who are at risk. They sometimes fail to offer the talk therapy – or other types of treatment – that can save lives. That’s why families whose loved ones died by suicide need the help of experienced attorneys who know what’s required to hold mental health providers accountable.

The new study was detailed in many publications, including a report in Time on Nov. 24, 2014. Quoting researchers, Time stated: “People who present with deliberate self-harm constitute a high-risk group for later suicidal behavior and fatal outcomes, so preventive efforts are important; yet, implemented specialized support after self-harm is rare.”

In  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health news release about the findings, Annette Erlangsen, DPH, an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Mental Health, stated: “We know that people who have attempted suicide are a high-risk population and that we need to help them. However, we did not know what would be effective in terms of treatment. Now we have evidence that psychosocial treatment – which provides support, not medication – is able to prevent suicide in a group at high risk of dying by suicide.”

According to the news release, researchers suggest broadly implementing therapy programs for people who have attempted suicide in the past.

We have no doubt that there’s room for improvement when it comes to helping people who have made attempts at suicide or who have suicidal thoughts. We hope this new study will lead to some meaningful changes.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

Understanding risk factors for suicide is essential to preventing death by suicide. Updated research suggests that one potential risk factor frequently overlooked is a tendency toward perfectionism. Individuals, families of perfectionists and mental health professionals need to be aware that an overwhelming drive to be the best at everything can be a potential mental health issue that increases the risk of death by suicide. A suicide attorney should be consulted if mental health experts miss the signs and a person attempts to die by suicide.

Perfectionism is a Risk Factor for Death by Suicide

Perfectionism is generally defined as a need to either be perfect or to appear perfect. Unfortunately, as a new article in the Science of Us indicates, “the average person has very little understanding or awareness of how destructive perfectionism can be.”

Perfectionists frequently feel as though they are impostors putting on a mask of having it altogether. When this facade collapses, it can be devastating. For example, in a 2007 study, researchers interviewed friends and family members of people who had recently died by suicide. With no prompting, more than half of the people who had lost their lives were described by their family members as “perfectionists.”

A British study had similar results. Researchers looked at 20 students who had died by suicide. A total of 11 out of the 20 were described by people who knew them as being afraid to fail.

Yet another study of 33 boys and young men who had taken their lives were also described by their parents as having placed “exceedingly high” demands and expectations on themselves.

Unfortunately, there are high rates of death by suicide among people who are perfectionists because many people set impossibly high standards for themselves that they cannot possibly meet. They may then feel let down or disappointed when they are unable to meet the expectations that they have set.

The link between suicide and perfectionism have been largely misunderstood and overlooked, in large part because perfectionists don’t want people to know they are suffering. A person who is a perfectionist will try to paint a facade of keeping everything together, and admitting to thoughts of suicide will not typically fit in with the image that they are trying to present. Family members and loved ones may not even be aware of the fact that the perfectionist is experiencing any type of depression, as “perfectionism might not only be driving suicidal impulses, it could also be simultaneously masking them.”

Perfectionists are advised to aim the trait outside of themselves whenever possible to avoid some of the downsides of perfectionism. Volunteering and doing things for others could help to alleviate some of the pressures that are associated with perfectionism. For parents whose kids are perfectionists, sharing stories of setbacks and failures could also help to make a big difference.

Recognizing the potential for suicide associated with perfectionism is an important first step in being able to recognize signs of a problem and prevent a death from occurring.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

Eighteen percent of undergraduate students in the United States have suicidal thoughts and about one student in 10 makes plans to die by suicide. Every day, there are nearly three on-campus deaths of college students due to suicide. Recently, Philly.com looked at the problem of suicides on campus and asked an important question: “isn’t this an epidemic?”

A suicide attorney knows that college is a transitional time and a period of tremendous emotional stress and vulnerability. Young people are struggling to define themselves away from their families for the first time. They are faced with peer pressure as well as blossoming academic challenges, all of which can become very overwhelming.

Preventing Death by Suicide on College Campuses

College students, parents, friends and family members need to understand when someone is at risk of death by suicide. For the vast majority of people, thoughts of suicide are a “transient” emotional state, so it can be difficult to identify when college students may cross the line from thoughts into taking action.

College campuses try to provide help to prevent death by suicide. Roof access has been reduced and balconies have been blocked off on many campuses in response to student suicides. Special training and screening or evaluation tools are provided on some campuses, and colleges have made counseling available on campus. However, there may be much more that should be done to prevent death by suicide. Suggestions for a campaign to reduce deaths include:

• More education. Suicide should be talked about more frequently, and students should be taught that the brain can be modified to control urges. The difference between automatic conditioned living and purposeful choosing should be explored, and students should be educated more on the boundaries marking the beginning of illness. There should also be more open discussion about available treatments for depression or thoughts of suicide.
• More screening. College students are a highly-vulnerable group at risk for suicide. A broad screening program may be more effective on a college campus than it would be among the general population. The screening program would not only help to identify students who are at risk but would also help to maintain awareness both about the risk of death by suicide as well as about the significance of suicidal ideation.
• Better suicide prevention networks. Suicide prevention efforts should focus on the communication tools that college students use most frequently. For example, students may be more likely to visit a supportive community center web site that acts as a suicide prevention network than they would be to call a suicide hotline. Students should have access to suicide counselors on the social networks that they use most, as they may not visit student health services

By providing better access to suicide prevention services using the communication tools that students need, hopefully the problem of suicide on college campuses could be reduced. Mental health counselors available to students on college campuses also need to be aware of the unique risks that vulnerable student populations face and should be especially vigilant to watch for signs of suicidal thoughts.

A Dallas, TX suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

When a person is incarcerated, he or she is still entitled to receive necessary medical care for health conditions. This includes not just physical symptoms but also mental problems that may be causing someone to have thoughts of suicide or to consider dying by suicide. Unfortunately, a recent article on AOL.com suggested that safeguards designed to prevent inmates from harming themselves are not being followed.

Anyone considering dying by suicide deserves to get help and have a chance to recover, even if that person is in jail or prison. This “prisoner,” by the way, may be a teen locked up in jail for a DWI; a teen who is ashamed for the arrest and thinking he or she has ruined their life.  Of course they haven’t but they think so.

Those responsible for providing help can be held accountable if they negligently fail. An experienced suicide attorney can represent victims or family members who suffer as a result of a failure of healthcare providers or other professionals.

Inmates at Risk of Death by Suicide

According to AOL.com, an inmate in New York city who was experiencing mental illness died by suicide. He had attempted to die by suicide three times within a three day period of time before his ultimate death. As a result, he was put on 24-hour watch in an attempt to protect him. This was ignored. Also ignored was a screening form in which he had indicated that he was “thinking about killing himself.”

This is not an isolated incident. Another inmate also died by suicide in a solitary confinement cell after telling the guards that he was suicidal. When he said this to one of the guards shortly before his death, the reply was to “go ahead and do it,” if you have the courage to do so. A third story involved another inmate dying by suicide using a metal bed that he stood on its end to create a scaffold. The beds were supposed to be welded to the floor to prevent this, since another inmate had previously done the same thing.

AOL reported that records show at least 11 suicides in New York City jails in the past five years. In at least nine of the incidents, there was a failure to follow safeguards designed to prevent inmates from death by suicide.

Problems include:

• Communications breakdowns between guards and mental health staff, which can sometimes result in inmates not getting necessary medications or precautions not being taken to protect those considering death by suicide.
• Improper distribution of medication.
• Inadequate mental health treatment.

There is no excuse for these types of problems, but they happen all the time. As a result, after cancer and heart disease, suicide is the third leading cause of death in jails nationwide. Throughout the country, there are 41 deaths by suicide among inmates for every 100,000 people incarcerated.

It is often possible to prevent death by suicide and a failure to take reasonable precautions to protect inmates can be considered negligent. When someone’s negligence directly contributes to a death by suicide, it is important to hold that individual or company accountable in order to change behavior going forward in the future and provide broader protections to those who need them.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 to schedule a free case consultation.

There are many risk factors for suicide and both individuals and mental health professionals need to be aware of some of the likely reasons why people will consider death by suicide. One factor that can play a role in increasing the risk of suicide is domestic violence.

Mental health professionals should know that a person who has experienced domestic violence or intimate partner violence is at greater risk of death by suicide. If a counselor or care professional fails to recognize risk factors of suicide, a suicide attorney should be consulted for assistance in pursuing a claim for compensation.

The Link Between Domestic Violence and Suicide

As Overcoming the Darkness reports, victims of domestic violence have a higher risk of suicide not only while the violence is occurring but over the course of the rest of their lives. For example, a woman who experiences violence at the hands of an intimate partner is 12 times as likely to die by suicide as compared with someone who is not a victim of domestic violence. The increased risk of suicide is so strong that more domestic violence victims actually die by suicide than are killed by the person who is committing the abuse.

People who are themselves victimized by domestic violence are not the only ones who face an increased risk of suicide. Children who are exposed to domestic violence in the home are more likely to have suicidal tendencies and to die from suicide.

UMN reports on additional research showing a link between suicide and domestic violence. One study showed that 29 percent of all women in the United States who attempted suicide had been battered by an intimate partner. Reports prompted UNICEF to state that “a close correlation between domestic violence and suicide has been established based on studies in the United States” as well as in at least seven other countries.

Victims of domestic violence may feel trapped in a situation they cannot get out of and may feel as if they have no choice but to escape by taking their own life. Unfortunately, both suicide and domestic violence are also stigmatized in society. People avoid talking about domestic violence and they avoid talking about the fact that they are having thoughts of suicide because they are ashamed or because they fear social stigma.

Open communication is the key to preventing deaths by suicide among domestic violence victims. A change in public perception could help to make it easier for people who are being victimized and considering suicide to get the help that they need. Healthcare professionals need to be better trained and better informed on the link between domestic violence and suicide, and screening should be encouraged so that intervention is more likely to occur.

A large-scale study conducted by the United States Air Force shows that integrating suicide prevention policies and de-stigmatizing the process of seeking help can make a major difference in reducing the suicide rate. Not only that, but homicide and family-violence rates also decreased along with the number of people who died by suicide.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

The Great Recession that started in 2007 caused many people to lose their homes and their livelihood. Some individuals and families, however, experienced a loss that was far beyond any financial devastation. According to a recent article on CBS News, the Great Recession may have been the cause of more than 10,000 deaths by suicide.

Economic stress can significantly increase the chances of someone having suicidal thoughts, and a job loss or a foreclosure can lead to someone attempting suicide. Families and community members need to be especially supportive of those going through financial hardship and mental health professionals must be vigilant in watching for signs that a patient they are treating may be considering death by suicide after a financial setback.

If medical professionals fail to recognize and act on signs of suicide, surviving family members may be able to take legal action to obtain compensation for losses. A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can represent those who lose a loved one as a result of death by suicide.

Economic Distress and Death by Suicide

Researchers from the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene & Topical Medicine examined information on deaths by suicide from 24 different countries in the European Union as well as in Canada and the United States.

Researchers found a substantial increase in rates of suicide between 2008 and 2010. The increase in deaths by suicide was four times greater among men than among women.

In the European Union, suicides increased 6.5 percent from the time the economic crisis started in 2007 until the end of 2009. In Canada, there was a 4.5 percent increase in deaths by suicide between 2007 and 2010. In the United States, there was a 4.8 percent increase in deaths by suicide. These numbers were “conservative” estimates, and it is likely that there were more deaths that were not counted.

During this same time period, there was also a significant increase in the rate of prescription antidepressant use. For example, in the United Kingdom, there was an 11 percent increase in antidepressant use between 2003 and 2007 but by 2010, there was a 19 percent increase in the number of people taking such medications.

The fact that the differences in suicide rates occurred in all of the countries affected by the great recession gave researchers considerable confidence in concluding that it was economic factors that specifically caused the increase in the number of people who died by suicide.

Unfortunately, key risk factors for suicides during a recession include home repossession, a significant increase in debt, and the loss of a job.

Interventions such as return-to-work programs and employment assistance may help to reduce the risk of suicide. In fact for each $100 per person spent on programs to help the unemployed, there is a .4 percent increase in the risk of death by suicide.

Ultimately, however, mental health professionals may have the biggest impact on reducing the chances of a death by suicide in each particular case since behavioral therapy and the use of antidepressant medications can help a person to weather even serious economic hardship.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.